Thursday, July 30, 2009

I received my pincushion today. It is absolutely amazing and so perfect for me. I have already started to use it. Diana made it for me.

I also won and received an incredible giveaway from SummerSadie. Five fat quarters from Michael Miller's Funky Christmas. I am going to have a lot of fun deciding what to make with these. Thank you to Jane as well, who said she would send me some of her giveaway luck. It's worked.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

My pincushion has been received by my partner Linda of Fiber Fabrications. I must say it is intimidating to make something for someone who is so talented. I enjoyed making the miniature log cabins. I used my EQ6 to print out a paper piecing pattern for them.

The swaps have been good for me to try out new things. If you are interested in making a chicken pincushion, here is the tutorial.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

I have received my first set of the 4SQS summer block swap. It is neat to see so many different fabrics. I was very happy to receive one of Jane's blocks. I am halfway done my second set which will be orange.

Now, I need some help with something else. I am thinking about starting to do some hand quilting. I did some many many years ago and would like to start again. I was wondering if any of you could recommend any books, or videos that would help me? I am going on a vacation in a while, which means no sewing machine. I am worried about detoxing, and thought it would be great to do some hand quilting.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Yes, I won this beautiful quilt. It arrived in the mail yesterday. Viv from Highway Cottage in New Zealand had a giveaway. She had made it for the Spring Blooms Mini-Quilt Swap and then decided to make another one for her partner. I am so glad she did.

While, your eyes are feasting on the quilt, I will sneak in the f word. Fabric! Now, I was never one of the kids who had the designer clothes and I at times felt left out. I have been reading for months about the amazing modern fabrics that are out there, including Far, Far Away. I came off my healthy lifestyle and bought some. In Canada, we do not have as many fabric choices as some off the other countries and our fabric is more expensive. I found a great Canadian online fabric store, called Pink Panda Fabrics. I also bought some Sandi Henderson's Farmer's Market. I think my favourite is the mermaid fabric. I got the package yesterday and I got to feel what first love is again. I understand now, what all of the fascination is about. If you are going to indulge, make it good and I definitely made it great!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Here is the Bento Box quilt I am making for my dad. It is based on one Amanda Jean made. I have the individual squares done, now I need to sew them into blocks. Before I do, I want to show it to you. Is the colour spread out evenly? Do you see any odd blocks. I do not want to be singing the Sesame Street song again.

Diane from Sew Diva Diane has posted a great tutorial on how she folds her fabric using comic book boards. If you get a chance check it out.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

One of These Things (Is Not Like The Others)

One of these things is not like the others,One of these things just doesn't belong,Can you tell which thing is not like the othersBy the time I finish my song?

Did you guess which thing was not like the others?Did you guess which thing just doesn't belong?If you guessed this one is not like the others,Then you're absolutely...right!

Thank you once again, Sesame Street. I did not notice that one of these things did not belong. Do you spot it? This is my zigzag quilt, based on Amanda Jean's tutorial. I had already cut the sides, and put on one side of the inner border before I noticed. I thought I was so careful when putting it together. I constantly checked my layout photo before I sewed them. Luckily, for me it is at the end so I am going to try to take it out. Oops, did I give it away?

My zigzags are a bit smaller than the tutorial because I had a very limited amount of the light blue but I really wanted to use it. The quilt is for family friends who had a boy a few months ago. The husband is Canadian and the wife is American, so I thought the fabric choices were a good compromise. Paddington Bear is going to be used as a border print.

Friday, July 10, 2009

You looked didn't you! One of my favourite books as a kid and one that I now read to my kids is The Monster at the End of the Book starring Grover. He pleads with you not to turn the page, because there is a monster at the end of the book, but of course you have to, to read the story. I won't give away the ending.

Now, what do you see on my sidebar. Yes, you see another swap button.

Please, please don't tell my husband. (He'll find out anyhow. He's one of those guys who pays attention to you when you are talking and knows more about you than you do.) Michele from the Quilting Gallery sent around an email yesterday saying she had extended the deadline for the summer swap because some people had not received the email about it. I took it as a sign and signed up! There are a few reasons why I did it. One, I worried a lot last time that my quilts were not as good as others. When the swap was done, I saw quilts that went from simple to very intricate. I am not trying to say that mine were better than others. Rather I stress that should it be the most complicated quilt possible. The thing is I liked all of them. I want to have more confidence in my voice. The other reason is I want to improve my machine quilting. I was very tense last time about it, and the quilting turned out to be the same as the piecing, from simple to intricate.

I have been talking lately about my lists and the other thing I do is organize my swaps on my blog in order of the date they are due.

I already have my partner. One of the ideas I had for a summer quilt would suit her perfectly. I have a question for you. I came up with a quilt I wanted to make. I was looking to find how to do a specific section on it on the Internet, when I came across my idea, fully formed and planned out. So my question is, with mini swaps does it have to be completely free form, original or you can work from what someone has done, if it is what you had planned in your head?

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Camille and Carrie are having a parade of quilts where people show their first quilt and the latest they have finished as well as talk about something they have learned along the way. You need to let them know that you are going to be doing this and they will post a list of links on Monday.

Here is my first quilt on my own but technically, my second. My first was a fall wall hanging taken as a class, but all of the work including cutting and fabric selection had already been done. This picture was taken many years after it was completed when it was being brought back to me for repairs on the binding. I made it 9 years ago for my nephew. It still is one of my favourite quilts. I picked out the pattern and the fabric. I knew what I wanted it to look like and the women at the quilt store helped me with colour. It was an odd size in that it was just a few inches wider than the width of fabric. It was suppose to have another border added on to it but since I had no idea at the time about piecing backs, I left the last border off. It was quilted using stitch in the ditch with invisible thread. Now my nephew would like a red and orange quilt.

Here is the latest quilt that I have worked on. How times have changed. Because of my attempt at saving time, I ended up recreating this pattern on my own. There were suppose to be 5 strips in a block and I now have 4 strips. All of the corner, and side setting triangles were calculated by myself (thank goodness for tutorials on the Internet) and I added the border to make it bigger. I had it machine quilted by Tammy, because I have learned that 1) I don't have time for everything 2) I am not very good at it yet and therefore don't like doing it 3) I hate basting. I have also learned that I still love a lot of colour but I don't like the scrappy quilts where you are suppose to use only a few fat quarters and then have to arrange them so none of the same touch each other. It takes me along time to arrange them to get them that way. That is one of the reasons I love jelly rolls. 4o different fabrics, a bit of background fabric and you have a great quilt.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

like a cat. As you may know, I like to make a list of projects to work on for the month. It started with the Spring to Finish and I have found it works very well for me. Well, this month I had 4 projects that I absolutely had to focus on. Then this past weekend another project crept in on softly padded feet. It was the kitty cat quilt for my son. I have had it hanging around for a long time. I had half the squares done. The problem was that the other half of the squares called for a large half square triangle, and I did not know what fabric to use for it. I had two kinds of cat fabric that I could have used, but they were intended for the border and the backing, so I would have to find something else for them. Well, after finally having my Spring Meadow quilt done, it gave me some much needed energy to focus on some of my older projects. Using my healthy quilt lifestyle, I dug into my stash and found the perfect blue to go with the quilt. Now I just have one more square to finish and the quilt can be put together.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Well, my Spring Meadow quilt is finally done and I love it. The fabric is Simplicity by 3 Sisters for Moda, but unfortunately there was nothing simple about this quilt. If you want to read the long drawn out story, click here. Tammy did amazing work on the quilting. Speaking of Spring, Kelly my amazing swap partner for the Spring Blooms Mini-Quilt Swap gave me the link for the tutorial she used for the flowers.

It is only really been in the past year that I have been making quilts for myself and my family. Before that they went to everyone else. Last night was so much fun. I got into bed with my kids and we each put our quilt over ourselves rather than the duvet. Even the teddy bear who was sick got a quilt. There was a great deal of personal satisfaction from us all of us being together with our quilts.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Here was my list at the beginning of June and here is how I have done.

Finish Spring Blooms Mini-Quilt Swap. DONE

Finish putting together Zigzag quilt. GETTING THERE

Do my colour blocks for the 4SQS summer block swap. DONE

Start working on my pincushion for the swap. PATTERN CHOSEN

Make a test starry web block. STARTED

Keep working on my dad's quilt. DONE

Catch up on the 9 patch quilt a long. PROGRESSING

Put the binding on my Spring Meadow Quilt. DONE (last few stitches done on July 1st)

I like putting the words beside the list. It makes it look like I have accomplished so much. I have done pretty well. Once I added more light to the sewing room, I noticed that a few of my zigzag seams were quite scant so I am going to redo them.

My first batch for the 4SQS Summer Block Swap has been received.

I changed my mind a couple of times for my pincushion but now I have my pattern picked out. It is really cute. I started to make my starry web block and then realized that the paper pieced pattern was only 78% of the actual size and that I need to enlarge it before I make it. I only had one small section done, so I really did not lose any work. My dad's blocks are done and now comes the hard part of figuring out where everything should go. I am making progress on my 9 patch quilt a long, but I realized that I wanted to keep the yellow centres all the same colour. I did not have enough of it so I have ordered some more. I did get my binding on my Spring Meadow quilt done on Wednesday, so it is my first finish of July.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Happy 142th Birthday Canada! The True North Strong and Free! I absolutely love my country and would not want to live anywhere else. For some great articles about Canada, check out the yarn harlot's blog.

On a quilting note, I am usually a person who likes a lot of colour in her quilts. I have only recently learned to appreciate white. I saw this quilt in McCall's Quick Quilts magazine January 2009 and knew I wanted to make it. Yes, I have all the fabric and it will become my Canada Day quilt. I am going to choose a different fabric for the border.

To all my fellow Canadians, wherever you may be in the world, I wish you a wonderful Happy Canada Day!